Pages

Thursday, February 28, 2013

I was on my way to my doctor appointment last week, and I just started thinking about the direction my life has taken. I have a great husband (even if he is a pain in my butt sometimes!!!), two beautiful children and one on the way, as well as a roof over my head and a vehicle to get me where I need to go.

See, I had this whole big plan for my life for quite some time. I would get married at about 20, have my first baby by the time I was 22(ish), and be done having children by the time I was 30. I would be happily married to a "well-to-do" man, with a nice house, a nice car, and not a care or worry in the world financially. Hey, a girl can dream, right? Well, if you've been following my blog long enough, you know that this couldn't be farther from reality! Michael and I got married when I was 28, we had our first baby when I was 29, second at 30, and now #3 will be born at age 32. I'm still happily married, but in a modest home, with a decent car (hey, it has seating for 7!), and of course we have financial worries! Who doesn't? Michael isn't "well-to-do" per se (I mean come on...he was laid off for 9 months out of the year that we got married! lol), but he makes enough so that I can stay home with the kids, and we can still make it by OK. Do I miss work? Of course. Mainly for the adult interaction that I don't really get much of anymore. It just seems like it would be so much easier for someone with one baby (or no babies!) to come my way than for me to pack up my 8 month pregnant self and two toddlers to go somewhere else to visit, ya know? That's ok. I'm getting used to next to no one coming by, and I'm even trying to learn to enjoy the early wake ups because it's giving me more time with my two kids. The days that Justin decides to wake up at 5 am (like today), though, make it tough to really be 'happy' that he's awake, and will most likely wake his sister up with all his racket...haha!

Anyways. Back to the drive to my doctor appointment last week. I started thinking about all of this, and got pretty choked up. I have been so incredibly blessed in my life, and I'm working really hard to be thankful for what I have, and what we're doing for our family. I sat there thinking about it on my 15 minute drive, and kept going back and forth between being happy for the situation that I am in, and being crushed for friends and/or family that have struggled, and do struggle with their lives for whatever reason right now. It was really a very enlightening drive, and I'm making it a point to reflect on it whenever possible.

I've also made some changes around here. I want to have more structured days for the kids. After all, Julia will be going to pre-school next year (CRY!!!), and I want to make sure that she is ready. Justin also needs to work on some of his advancements for his age, so I made up a calendar that I'm going to do my darndest to stick to. Each day there is one developmental activity for each kid. Justin's activities are things like coloring, stacking, singing the ABC's, learning body parts...etc. Julia's are tracing letters/shapes, working on letter sounds and recognition, days of the week, and months. I've only got the calendar written up through the third week of this month, but I'm going to try to print a few more off so that they're done and available after the baby is born. If I can pull that off, Michael can help with the lessons when he gets home from work! Here is a picture of the "early stages" of the calendar. This is (obviously) just the first couple of weeks, and I have since added more.

I'm really hoping that this calendar will help *me* remain focused enough to work with the kids each day! It will be tough once the baby comes, but if I can get into the habit now, it should work out fine!

Thursday, February 14, 2013

I keep getting asked what I'm "giving up" for Lent this year. Well, considering that yesterday was Ash Wednesday (see Wordless Wednesday with Julia's ashes!), I guess I need to really nail down what exactly I'm doing this year and get on it! I don't think I'll be giving anything up, per-se, but I will be trying to do a little something extra. Normally, I share what I've decided to take on, but this year...I think I'm going to keep it quiet. I'm really starting to work on me. Work on being more positive (especially when the kids wake up at 6 am), work on being a better friend, a better mother, a better Catholic (as stated in my What to Expect from ME in 2013 post)... So I guess you can say I'm just going to roll all of that into one big ball of Lenten joy! I know I haven't done all that great with keeping up on my day-specific blogs, but we're selling our house, and things have been kind of crazy thus far. If I can get the kids to sleep just a wee bit longer in the mornings, I should be able to take on those posts much more freely. :-)

We had a bit of a scare with baby girl Tuesday night. I was having some pretty moderate contractions for about an hour and a half, so the doctor had me come in just to be safe. She sounds fine, and I'm not dilating any yet, so that's good. This baby needs to cook for at least 5 more weeks!!! I took it as a smack across my head to chill out and not get so stressed about everything.

Anyways. Justin is upstairs making all kinds of racket in his crib again, so I must get him up and snuggle him before he wakes Julia up!

Oh, here's a picture for good measure. :-)

Keep your eyes peeled for an update on my Project 52 blog as well. I'm falling a couple of weeks behind on that one, too!

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

I know, I know...it's a day late...but I wasn't anywhere near the mindset I needed to be in yesterday to blog.

So! This weekend was a roller coaster for me. Saturday, I got cornered in the bathroom with my daughter at church by a woman that felt it was necessary to tell me that my kids were very disruptive. I don't really feel like reliving the whole thing, so let's just say I bit my tongue, but won't be so nice next time. Sunday, we had our house inspected. That didn't go overly well, either. We found out that the buyers wanted out of the contract, so at this point in time, we've lost the buyers and are back at square one. Yesterday, we found out that the reason we lost the buyers is something that is so easily fixable. So now, we're crossing our fingers that maybe...just maybe...they'll reconsider.

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

This will include more than just Friday through Sunday just because...

We got our house listed on Tuesday night. Between Wednesday and Sunday, we had 14 scheduled showings...FOURTEEN!!! Two cancelled and one was a no show, so 11 actual showings over the course of 5 days. It was nuts for a bit, but it's all good. We got some good news yesterday and late last night, so now...we wait!

I got to hang out with my sister for a bit - kid free - on Sunday since Michael took the kiddos up to his parents house for the annual wild game dinner. No...the kids didn't go to the dinner, but they got some quality time with their great aunt that night. :-)

Other than that, being able to watch a couple of "grown-up" movies, me going to dinner ny myself on Saturday, and being out of the house for a few showings, the weekend was pretty low-key!

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Apparently selling a house is a lot more "work" than I expected...haha! Kind of makes me miss the apartment days when you just pack up at the end of your lease and switch apartments! Ah well. This will be a big change for the better, for sure! Please bear with me, and I will be back up and running again soon. :-)

Click Click Click

Linky Linky

About me

I am a happily married stay at home mommy to our beautiful growing family. I love my Faith, crocheting, being with my family, having company over, and learning about my kids every day. I am a work in progress...slowly improving as time goes on.
Come visit me often!